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Abysmal delivery and service experience

Abysmal delivery and service experience

Submitted by sbennet on Fri, 2013-02-01 12:02

Curious if others are having service issues. I got my car last Saturday and they didn't give me the registration nor several items I asked for regarding tax credits, carpool sticker, etc. Have let them know numerous times and all Tesla can do is let me know they are aware of it but don't seem able to do anything. Two days ago my battery stopped charging (software update issue??) and they had me bring in to shop in Menlo Park. They did give me a rental car, but nobody has had a chance to look at car yet. The guy at the service desk has only been at the company a week and doesn't seem to know anything. I guess when they only had a few cars on the road, it was much easier to handle stuff, but now that they are scaling production, they have no clue how to run a high end service organization. They seem to run it like a tech company, although I haven't been put on hold yet and then transferred to a guy in India...

--Steve

JoeFee |
1 februari 2013

STEVE
Hang in there...your registration will come in mail as will car pool stickers in a few weeks. They seem to be proactive on your charging issue with the rental. The car was released too early but I HAPPY TO HAVE IT NOW BUGS & ALL!

Jon Wray |
1 februari 2013

Yes, I have had problems with the West LA service center.

sbennet |
1 februari 2013

Love the car, just wish they knew how to provide service!

Joe - I've never bought a car before where you didn't get a temporary registration paper taped to the windshield. Are you saying it isn't an issue to go without temp registration? What do you do if get pulled over and cop asks for license and registration. Just say, "I'm driving a Tesla. I don't need no stinkin registration!"

jat |
1 februari 2013

I didn't get my registration paperwork for a week after I got the car. I don't know how the carpool sticker works in CA, but in GA I had to wait until I received the AFV tag to drive in the HOV lane, which took about 3 weeks after I got the registration paperwork.

rallykeeper |
1 februari 2013

Tesla helps with the HOV sticker in California? News to me. I applied myself -- about a month ago -- and am still waiting on it.

andresk |
1 februari 2013

I got the temporary windshield sticker when I picked up the car, and official plates came in the mail a few weeks later. They should have given you the temp sticker. You need to apply for HOV stickers once your license plate arrives (because the application asks for license plate number). So, the one item I see they missed was the temporary registration.

As far as service, I had my car serviced at the Menlo service center yesterday and had a very good experience, but you can feel the growing pains, they are running more like a fast growing startup (which they are) than a service center that has all the process ironed out. My only suggestion is be the squeaky wheel that get attention. When I didn't get a call back in 3 days for a part as promised, I called (after 5 days), pushed, and they found a spare part they could borrow.

bbmertz |
1 februari 2013

Tesla no longer submits the HOV sticker application for customers in CA, but it's not really a big deal since they simply mail the app to the DMV. You'll need to wait until you receive your title or license plate before applying, since the plate number is required on the form. The DMV is currently backlogged in processing apps and warned me that it may take up to two months to process. The form can be obtained at the following website and needs to be mailed to the specified address rather than brought into a local office:http://www.dmv.ca.gov/forms/reg/reg1000.htm

If your car is direct-shipped to you by a third-party carrier rather than by Tesla, then as others have mentioned, you will get the temporary registration via FedEx from Tesla a few days later.

I personally have received great service from the West LA service center, although they clearly could use more space. (I do wish that Enterprise had nicer cars for Tesla customers, but am glad that I have been offered a rental while my car was in for service.) The service advisors mentioned that it is likely another service center will be opened in the LA area within the next few months.

sbennet |
1 februari 2013

The registration isn't as important now as the car will be in the shop for a week. Apparently, they need a software engineer to write some code to fix a battery charging issue. Wish Apple made the car...#EarlyAdopterBlues

Also, it's kind of amusing that the rental car they gave me is a big giant gas hogging GMC SUV...thought I was done with gas stations

olanmills |
3 februari 2013

If Apple made the car, then they would deny there were any bugs at all and then silenty releas an update at their own sweet leisure while avoiding telling anyone there was a problem in the first place and not tell users how they might mitigate the problem until a fix is released.

...rant over ...sorry

Laryrob |
4 februari 2013

can i get CA HOV sticker even though I live in Seattle? We are often in CA

Schlermie |
4 februari 2013

Lawrence,
No...you need to have CA plates on your car.

Theresa |
4 februari 2013

It is apparent that Tesla bit off a little more than they can chew with the services they state they will provide. I was wondering how they were going to handle all the car registrations as I live in a state (Iowa) where registration is done at the county level and not the state level. This does not sound like much of a deal and it isn't as long as you know that the check is not made out to the DOT but rather the county treasurer. Also there are other minor quirks about how the paperwork gets filled out. Tesla didn't do a good job of following up with their side of the paperwork when it was returned to them even with a phone call from me.

I eventually told Tesla to send the paperwork to me and I would take care of it. This worked well for me but I did need to squeak quite a bit to Tesla to get their attention. Once I had their attention the specialist did a good job of following up with me. Tesla only missed paying a fine because of my intervention.